Forgebane Rework
by Rattraveller
Summary: Portions of this are quoted from the Forgebane boxed set lore and not my own. I did not like how the Necron point of view was missing so added it in to give some balance.


FORGEBANE

12/18/2019

For more than a Hundred centuries the Emperor has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. His is the Master of Mankind by the Will of the Gods and Master of a Million Worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is the rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the Imperium, for whom a thousand souls die every day, for whom blood is drunk and flesh is eaten.

Human blood and Human flesh-The stuff of which the Imperium is made.

To be alive in such times is to be one amongst untold trillions and trillions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable; this is a tale of those times.

CHAPTER ONE

Agsahax the Technomandrite of Mephrit Dynasty moved along the ancient corridors not noticing the Scarabs scuttling past her on her way to the next set of instrument panels to check its readouts. For the last ten years since awakening from statis she had performed this duty on many far flung and hidden research outposts and was almost done. This experiment did not show the progress she had thought it would. Making some adjustments to correct the results until she checked again in ten thousand years.

Long ago many had simply obeyed the orders of the Silent King, the ruler of the Necron race to go into statis for sixty million years to await the downfall of their enemies. For her, she had loved the idea. The Mephrit Dynasty were known as the Star Killers because of their weapons which could destroy entire solar systems. The long millennia in statis gave her the opportunity to experiment with solar bodies on the time scale she truly needed to discover even more effective weapons to deal with their enemies.

She had only been happier when her race of Necrontyr had given up their weak bodies and traded them for the necrodermis bodies that made them the Necrons. All it had cost them was their souls. To her the trade had been everything she could have asked for.

One of the ornately decorated Lychguard bodyguard approached her to a distance meaning he wished to speak to her. She wished she could be left alone to perform her experiments but as a member of the noble ranks she was called upon when decisions needed to be made.

To her this had been another benefit of discarding their flesh bodies. Only the truly great and deserving minds had been given necrodermis bodies which could retain their personalities and intellects. The masses of the frail Necrontyr population had been turned into mindless near indestructible soldiers who did exactly as they were told.

She said, "Report Honored Lychguard."

The Lychguard stated, "Honored Cryptek we are receiving a report from Amontep II noctilith device. Several lifeforms are attempting to disturb its function."

While a nuisance this was not an unexpected report. The lower lifeforms were always attempting to disturb the wonders of the Necron race had created. Usually it was nothing too troubling and the Canoptek constructs on site eradicated them easily. Still this would not have been brought to her unless there was a problem. Then it came to her, Amontep II had no Necron soldiers or Canoptek constructs stationed there to defend it. The Lychguard needed the approval of someone from the higher ranks to send forces to remove what was bothering the noctilith device.

Thinking about the past times she had had to intervene herself brought her a semblance of pleasure. Eradicating members of the lesser races and showing them the true dominance of the Necron race had not been an unwelcome diversion. Still her first duty was to her experiments and not to her personal desires.

She said, "Honored Lychguard send a unit of Immortals and a unit of Canoptek Wraiths through separate dolmen gates and have them eradicate what is causing this disturbance and see to any repairs."

The Lychguard just turned to follow the order and Agsahax continued checking her instruments without a further thought on the matter.

CHAPTER TWO

The red sands of Amontep II stretched to the pollution-hazed horizon. To the Skitarii picking their way over the crest of the Vrackian Ridge, the chemical tang of distant industry was like that of the sweetest incense. The world's landscape was a close analogue of their sacred home Mars, and it was pleasing to their souls.

The vista that greeted them at the apex of their long climb was that of a large and shallow dust bowl, the broad footprints of the Armiger outriders tracking across it to lead far into the distance. The dust bowl was hidden from the worst of the elements by sloping shoulders of high dunes, the peaks of which trailed ribbons of sand into the skies. The Ranger Alpha, Kappic-Scholendt 33, sliced the panorama into four quadrants, sent the data via a brief burst of lingua technis to his fellows, and allocated a member of his squad to remote analysis of each section. If the hypothesis of their leader, Dentrex Ologostion the Magos Dominus of Amontep II's Vrackian Complex was correct, the expedition force would find rich deposits of the mineral they sought somewhere in this vicinity.

As the Omnissiah's grace would have it, the Ranger Alacridd 8's omnispex found a positive correlation with their hunt-data as it panned across the dust bowl. To the Skitarri its celebratory chimes were blissful. Every one of the Skitarri found a burst of glorious data spooling across their internal targeter arrays and they began converging upon the site without so much as a single word. Behind them came Magos Ologostion himself, his pace steadily accelerating as he eagerly drank in the data. Here was a source of the blackstone Archmagos Cawl had demanded they harness, and it was rich indeed.

Within the space of an hour, Ologostion had summoned the Quadrus pattern drop lander_ Bellerophobos_ to the site, not for the purposes of personnel removal, as was its primary duty, but so that the downdraft of its pivoting engine arrays would blow away the topmost layers of sand. To use such indiscriminate and hasty methods of archeology were all but anathema to the Tech-Priesthood, but so urgent were their orders they had little choice. By the time another hour had passed, the tops of strange noctolithic structures had been exposed, regular obelisks and henges so blocky and linear they could only be pre-Imperial in design.

Squad Kappic-Scholendt had drawn their vibro-knives and were about to take sample chippings of the noctiliths when the sands to the west began to shiver and trickle away. No sooner had Ologostion sent guardian imperative than three massive, insectile creatures burst from one of the towering slabs of rock, their segmented limbs whipping through the air as they darted towards the Skitarii. Alacridd 8's omnispex fell from his palsied hands as one of the whipping claws took the top of his head in a puff of blood. Magos Ologostion sent a searing beam of deflegratory energy from his Volkite Blaster, the shot so accurate it hurled the huge insect-like beings back from their prey in a blinding wall of fire. The creatures shimmered out of phase with reality for a moment, the startled Skatarii fought to regroup, only to see skeletal forms rising from the sands to the east. Red sand trickled from the ribcages and broad shoulders as a squad of what looked to them as the dead rising up and opened fire. Some shot at the _Bellerophobos_ forcing it to withdraw, others swathed a pair of Skatarii in discorporating gauss energies that saw them reduced to statues of scorched flesh, then glowing skeletons, then nothing at all.

There was a piercing cry from Ologostion and battle was truly joined. With the Alpha Ranger gone, the Magos Dominus took personal command of the remaining Skitarii Rangers. Sending override directives to his remaining forces, Ologostion had them concentrate all fire on what he recognized as Canoptek Wraiths while moving away from the metal skeletons he could not immediately place. Seven Galvanic rifle rounds struck one of the Wraiths before it could phase out of this reality bringing the non-living creature down. Ologostion fired his macro-stubber at one and his Volkite Blaster at the other. This time the energy did not find a target but his macro-stubber punished the third Wraith forcing it back.

A cut off squeal from behind him and loss of data input told Ologostion, three more of his Skitarii Rangers had been cut done by the metal skeletons he now recalled were known as Immortals armed with Gauss Blasters. The Magos Dominus was glad of the imbedded signal which had made one of the Rangers had thrown himself in front of a gauss discharge meant for him. Still that had been too close for his liking and he now only had four Skitarii Rangers left to sacrifice themselves for him.

Raising his Omnissian Axe he charged into the remaining Canoptek Wraiths closely followed by the remaining Skitarii Rangers. Ologostion swung on the unwounded Wraith, hitting the large creature repeatedly until he cut it in two sparking halves. Adjusting his biofeeds and chemical enhancer mixes he looked with his own eyes to see the other Canoptek Wraith had been felled without any more of his Skitarii Rangers being terminated. Continuing to turn and bringing his optical into use, he could tell they were out of range of the slow-moving Immortals.

Magos Dominus Ologostion had not felt fear in many decades. Now has he organized a firing line his first real fear came. They were evenly numbered with the Immortals, but he had seen them reassemble themselves to fight on while his Skitarii could not. Ordering them to fire, he joined with his Volkite Blaster. Their combined galvanic bullets and volkite fire took down three of the metal skeletons, still they continued their advance across the bloodied sands. When the Immortals returned fire another two Skitarii Rangers joined the ranks of the dead. But as Ologostion feared, two of the Immortals rose back up and joined the others as they charged the surviving Adaptas Mechanicus.

Gauss Blasters now rose and smashed down as the Immortals used them to break the last two Skitarii Rangers. Ologostion also felt the strength of their thin metal arms behind the blows as he was also battered. Recovering himself and fighting for his life, he struck back with his axe cleaving one of the Immortals into two halves. As the last two Immortals closed in on Ologostion, he brought his macro-stubber into play. At this range he could not miss and soon both Immortals down in a hail of bullets. Not wanting to see if anymore Immortals or Canoptek Wraiths reformed themselves. Ologostion sent recall data bursts out to the other Skitarii Ranger units and his special outriders to rejoin him immediately all other priorities rescinded.

CHAPTER THREE

The Lychguard approached Cryptek Agsahax the Technomandrite again. His metal features did not look any more or less concerned than the last time, but she could tell there was something wrong. She began to wonder if she would get a chance to do something other than take readings and make adjustments. This was not her priority nor what she had awakened from statis for but it had been four awakening cycles since last she had engaged an enemy and that had just been some Orcs trying to turn some Scarabs into what they called weapons.

She said, "Honored Lychguard what do you have to report?"

The Lychguard said, "Honored Cryptek. All five of the Immortals have been teleported back with serious damage and will require at least two cycles before they are ready for combat again. The Canoptek Wraiths have also been destroyed. The noctilith device is still threatened by several lifeforms in the area."

Agsahax knew standard protocols did not require her input and that the Lychguard would have sent more forces to eliminate the threat automatically. She asked, "Is there something else I need to know about this situation Honored Lychguard?"

The Lychguard said, "Yes Honored Cryptek. Further scans of Amontep II have revealed a total of two point three billion additional lifeforms of the same basic type as those engaged have entrenched themselves on the planet."

A human commander might have panicked upon hearing this news. Agsahax the Technomandrite just took this fact into her calculations. That so many lower lifeforms were on the planet meant they had been there a long time. That they had discovered the noctilith would have happened at some point. Now they would have to be dealt with and dealt with swiftly.

She said, "Honored Lychguard send all available forces to Amoptek II immediately. Have additional forces awoken from statis and sent as soon as they are capable. I am going to Amoptek II to smite these lower lifeforms myself."

Both of the Necrons left the chamber without further words. The Lychguard to carry out his orders. The Cryptek to enjoy herself showing the superiority of the Necrons to the lower lifeforms.

CHAPTER FOUR

Utter mayhem had broken out in the Vrackian dust bowl, the obsidian-like stone of the noctilith obelisks reflecting the blinding beams of blue and green energy that crackled through the rising dust. With the screech of Ologostion's summon-psalm still ringing n the air, the Skitarii had fought to form a protective cordon around both their Magos Dominus and the blackstone he had outlined as imperative to their mission. That cordon was growing thinner with every passing minute as the Necron attack pressed in. The Canoptek Wraiths were slashing and darting through the strange dolmen henges of the blackstone architecture, their whip-like appendages knocking the Skitarii from their feet as the Immortals closed the jaws of the ambush. The crackle of galvanic rifles split the air as the Omnissiah's faithful targeted the nearest xenos ambushers.

Where their bullets struck, Necron Immortals where consumed in crackling shrouds of electricity as their motive power was forcibly spent in one blackening. To the horror of the Skitarii, three of the scorched creatures scrabbled back up, stood unsteadily and came on once more, gauss blasters spitting. The arquebus that Kapic-Scholendt 33 had ordered set up atop the lintel of a Blackstone henge gave a crack, and one of the Immortals was struck full in the face, the snipers transuranium bullet tearing head from neck in a spray of green sparks. This time the cadaver shimmered and disappeared.

Then one of the dolmen gates thrummed with a deep bass note, an eye-searing light shining out from beneath the lintel. Out of the sudden nimbus came a tall, commanding Necron figure, carried on high by a skittering Canoptek construct. She was flanked by towering Lychguard, each bearing a hyperphase sword, their crackling dispersion shields held close to form a bulwark of alien alloy and arcane force. Agsahax the Technomandrite raised her Staff of Light high, casting an imperious gaze as she swept the ornate rod outward across Skitarii foot soldiers. Wherever the staff's tip pointed, red-robed Skitarii warriors burst into flame, their static-laced screams shrill and unnerving.

The Skitarri returned fire, those riflemen nearest to the new apparitions sending tight volleys into the Lychguard striding towards them. The bullets ricocheted from the dispersion fields shimmering around them, one slug pinging straight back to hit the firer between the eyes. The Skitarii wavered on the brink of panic, only for a binharic imperative from Ologostion to redouble their efforts. The foot soldiers fought back hard, charging in with a roar to club Immortals into the sand with the stocks of their rifles and pull Canoptek Wraiths to the ground with their bare hands. But their numbers were thinning fast. The Skitarii were outnumbered, and there was no route of escape in sight.

"Inloads at maximum!" declared Ologostion joyfully. His initial reaction at seeing the fabled Necron race in person had been a high spike of auto-adrenaline. He always experienced a singular thrill when encountering a new source of information, it was one of the only joys left to him. Few of the Cult Mechanicus knew of the impossibly ancient people that was the Necron. Even for those of the Dominus rank the topic was taboo. He had always secretly desired to study them, painstakingly and excruciatingly. And here they were.

A skeletal giant loomed from Ologostion's left, smashing him from his feet with a blow from an iron hard shield. The Magos Dominus fell skittering to the ground; he raised his volkite blast, but the energy counduit was sheared in half by a slashing blow from his assailant's powered blade. The venerable Tech Priest was beginning to think he might be the one to meet his end upon the excruciation table when he felt the ground shake at his back. A wry smile twisted the corner of his parched lips as he felt the surrounding air temperature the hallmark of melta weaponry, without a doubt without a doubt.

The Lychguard was raising it blade for the killing blow when it evaporated in an explosion of light and intense heat. Ologostion patted out the flames on his robes and stood back up as a long-legged giant strode past, its thermal spear blasting another searing beam into the Necrons emerging from the dolmen gate.

Two vanished in a blaze, those clustered around them turning to droplets of xenos alloy as the backwash rolled around them.

"Melta weapon efficacious." chuckled Ologostion. "House Raven recommended."

The second of the two Armiger Warglaives recalled from outrider duty crashed boldly into a trio of Canoptek Wraiths. One flickered out of phase, passing through the Armiger in a burst of green flame, but the other two were caught by a roundhouse sweep of the giant war machines chain-cleaver. They juddered and came apart, black fluid and emerald green sparks flying.

"Amend: highly recommended." said the Magos.

His joy at this did not last very long, the downed Necron began to reform themselves. Their leader being present appeared to inspire them to rejoin the fight faster. Ologostion noticed his soldiers did not seem able to hit the Necrons as well as before. It was as if time itself worked against them slowing down and moving faster to impede their fire. Picking himself up off the red sands he took cover behind the nearest Armiger and then began to send out data bursts of praises to the Omnissiah to inspire his Skitarii Rangers.

As one the remaining Adaptas Mechanicus forces all moved to the noctilith henge they had been taking samples from less than an hour before. He intended to make his stand their until more of his scattered forces could arrive. The Armiger Warglaives pulled back in good order after finishing off the last of the Canoptek Wraiths with another swing of their chain-cleavers catching the construct between them in a spectacular shower of sparks.

Looking over his remaining forces did not give him much hope. There were only three Skitarii Rangers still functioning at a level where they could fight. He himself was wounded but his self-repair had sealed the leaks. Both of the Armiger Warglaives had taken some blows from the blinding fast whips of the Canoptek Wraiths. The Tech Priest's augmented eyes revealed to his processor's the damage was only superficial.

Adjusting his optics, Ologostion took in what was left of the Necrons. The Canoptek Wraiths were gone and the ones he identified as the rarely seen Lychguard had only two left. Both of them were standing close to the leader of the group. His data files had still not identified that one yet. Perhaps he had discovered a new type of Necron, that would definitely advance his position within the Priesthood of Mars.

The unique sound of Gauss Blasters removing the last of the Skitarii Rangers from the surface of Amontep II brought all of his thoughts crashing back to where he really stood. The Necron foot soldiers had moved to his flank and fired on the Skitarii Rangers. Then the staff in the Necron leader's hand flared to life again and one of the Armigers took the brunt of the light. Ologostion now did the calculations of whether the Armiger Warglaives could hold against the Necrons when he heard the thrumming of the deep bass note of the dolman gate again and again. More Necrons were coming and his forces were still at the far edge of the Vrackain valley. Weighing his options, he knew the priority was getting the sample Archmagos Cawl wanted and there was more blackstone all over the valley. It was time for a tactical withdrawal.

CHAPTER FIVE

Agsahax the Technomandrite sent forth commands to increase the speed at which Necrons came to her aid while also personally overseeing the reanimation of the Lychguard. She was determined to stop these interlopers from doing any more damage to the noctilith device. Still another part of her mind wanted to collect some examples of these lower lifeforms now that she had seen them. She was extremely curious about how much of them were still organic and how much they had become like the Necron. She doubted she could learn from these primitives, but one must not leave any possible source of information unlooked upon in the search for knowledge.

A voice behind her said, "Honored Cryptek the unit is ready and awaits your orders."

Turning to the Lychguard, she said, "Honored Lychguard, advance and destroy the intruders. Secondary attempt to retrieve any remains of the enemy for examination." Thinking for a moment she added, "Have some of the Canoptek Wraiths begin to actualize the noctilith device. Let these invaders see the full glory of the Necrons before their deaths."

The Lychguard turned and fell in with his unit while more Canoptek Wraiths came through the dolman gate. Agsahax considered bringing Scarabs here to assist in any repairs but decided more warriors were what was needed now. Spurring her Canoptek Cloak onward she wanted to finish this matter quickly and then hopefully examine the remains of the leader of the lower lifeforms first.

CHAPTER SIX

A great groaning and creaking filled the air as the battle raged on between mechanized warrior and metal skeleton. One after another chasms and sinkholes appeared around the edges of the dust bowl, and the dunes forming its high walls began to melt away, the steady trickle of sand turning into a flood. Ridges and corners formed amongst the shapeless masses of sand, the sharp black lines of some long sunken metropolis becoming starker and more obvious as the dunes tumbled to nothing more than scattered drifts of sand. Skitarii and Necron alike stumbled and swayed as the ground shook ever more violently, but still they fought on. The spires of cathedrals of industry that had previously dotted the horizon slowly vanished from sight the jet-black towers and ziggurats rose higher. In the space of a few cataclysmic minutes the dust bowl had been revealed as a vast artificial plaza of black rock fringed with crenellations.

For the Adaptus Mechanicus it was all but impossible not to stare in horror and amazement - what they had presumed were scattered blackstone ruins were in fact the crowning structures of a vast and buried xenos metropolis. Worse still, that fortress was disgorging its garrison from shimmering portals that had opened in its flanks. Rank after rank of silvered, skeletal Immortals were marching out, some already firing crackling bolts of tesla energy at the Armiger Warglaives hacking at the Necrons at the heart of the blackstone plaza.

Magos Ologostion, caught between the impulses of terror and awe, found his mind glitching at the enormity of the revelation that faced him. Had this once-familiar world been infected with Xenos from the beginning? Had the Adaptus Mechanicus, having claimed this planet as their own for ten millennia or more, unwittingly settled a world that already belonged to an elder empire? How had such a titanic truth lain hidden all this time?

Ologostion shook the barrage of doubt from his mind. Emitting a noospheric blurt to his underlings, the Magos Dominus summoned his surviving warriors in close, sending a burst of location data-tether that linked him to the_ Bellerophobos._ Absently blasting a charging Canoptek Wraith with a stream of bullets from his macrostubber, he sent a priority request to his Armiger Warglaive outriders. It was obeyed almost instantly, the nearer of the two giant walkers sawing its huge chain-cleaver into the tip of a towering obelisk. In a blast of light the Armiger was toppled in a storm of energy. Yet its task was complete.

The Magos Dominus skittered forward, took up the fallen capstone of blackstone rock in his mechadendrites, and tucked it under his robes before allowing his Skitarii to close ranks around him. The sample was secure. He sent another doctrina imperative searing into the minds of his warriors, and they began to enact a fighting withdrawal towards the landing zone coordinates he had supplied to the_ Bellerophobos._ The Necrons had the advantage of numbers, but by their jerky movements they were recovering from statis, and the Skitarii moved swift and sure. He at least would escape, and the sample would reach Cawl in good time.

Within the hour the _Bellerophobos _was in orbit, the Vrackian bowl in flames below. The narrow victory won by the Adaptus Mechanicus would bear a terrible cost. With its noctiliths compromised, Amontep II had been left vulnerable indeed. In the skies high above, a livid yellow tear in the sky began to shimmer, whirl and grow larger...

CHAPTER SEVEN

Agsahax the Technomandrite did not become angry. The noctilith device could be repaired. Yes, it would take about one hundred years to place the new blackstone and readjust and realign the noctilith device, but it could be done. Looking to the sky, she could see what was coming. Now was the time to decide. To wipe the lower lifeforms from Amontep II and then deal with the new invaders or let them attack each other until one was destroyed. Cryptek Agsahax knew she could learn much from observing both enemies fighting each other but that was not the Necron way. She must summon the rest of the dynasty and bring the fight to their enemies. In this way she could earn honor and learn more by destroying both enemies herself.


End file.
